Hitting 20 doing something new/old

Back in the day, before Epic levels, there was Shavaraths battlefield. The highest level quests with the top level wilderness. And I cut my teeth soloing there first with my FVS and later on my ranger and other toons. I had the path pat down. I hit all the explorer using a familiar loop and even did all the slayer at some point.

But since Eveningstar and all the new content I have not visited the area, unless the new Shavarath quests counts – but then you never have to run the wilderness to do them.

I had 1 bubble left and I had done most of the Eveningstar ones. To tell you the truth I was tired of doing the same harper stuff to eek out the final few levels. I’d done enough the past week to make me feel exhausted. Mostly because I don’t find them inspiring at all. And after hitting Wheelon and such the harper ones are dreary.

So I figured I try something else. And out to Shavarath wilderness I went – a perfect place to raid with an Arti because of the Li 2 GS repeater and the ability to add silver to the damage through Arti buffs.

I vaguely remembered how I normally did things but once you start running muscle memory took over and soon enough I had hit all the vital spots, done 4 rare out of 12, all 14 explorer and tallied up almost 600 slayer. And as I did the final pit fiend – the devil that can snare you with chains (see image) I hit 20 and after looting the chest I was out of there.

It was fun to reminisce over things that were. It was fun doing the whole run and how different the experience was from those early days when I feared some of the red/orange named. And it was interesting how hitting some areas I could remember past adventures – from entering quests to good runs.

So much of that is lost due to more content and more efficient ways of getting stuff done. That’s not a bad thing – adding more content is good. But it is also digging into so many years of fun. We’re fewer now.

I remember times when the guild ship was overrun by people buffing. Every public area had dozen of people running around. Now when I enter these old areas I don’t really see anyone. It’s like having the universe for yourself.